Parking Ticket Questions

[tonyhe]

I was told that if a parking warden is in the process of writing a ticket out for your car and he/she hasn't finished it by the time you get in the car and drive off, you haven't broken any law and they cannot send you the ticket in the post without it first being physically published on your car. If this is true does it also apply to police officers who want to book you for being a minute or two late whilst in a parking spot?

I was also told by an ex-parking enforcement officer that they are told to engage in conversation with the customer when booking them even if it leads to an argument; this will buy valuable time to complete the ticket. So if the first question is correct, the moral is don't be enticed by their banter; 'Get the heck out of there'.

[Ethel]

You have committed the offence by illegally parking, If you drive off without waiting for the issue of the ticket a Notice of Intended Prosecution will be sent to your address and the ticket will be enforced.

These days, it can be done if your car is seen on a camera. The first you know about it is the NIP through the letterbox.

Exactly the same with driving in a bus lane - that bus behind you may well have a camera, gathering evidence of the offence.

As for the parking enforcer, all he needs is a record of the time, place and the vehicle registration number.

[Toureman]

Your dead right Ethel!

[Catso]

I think Ethel's partially right. There was an article about this in our paper a few weeks ago.
Strictly speaking, the notice must be completed and affixed to your vehicle to be valid. If you drive off before that's done, it doesn't count as an offence. You win, they lose!
But, in some areas, as Ethel points out, you can be done by camera. I believe the local council has to apply for some sort of exception/local by-law to be able to do this.
Another but: many of these new privatised parking enforement companies ignore the 'it has to be on your vehicle' rule and will forward the counterfoil for the parking ticket for processing. and say it WAS affixed to the car, when in fact it wasn't.

[Grunty]

A notice of intended prosecution is completely irrelevant in parking cases, except for the serious offence of leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position.

A summons can be issued for a parking offence within six months of the offence. The function of a parking ticket is as an alternative to the summons. If for any reason the ticket is not paid, the case goes to court.

So, even if the ticket could be shown to be invalid, the driver has deprived him/herself of the cheaper option. A court can fine much more than the fixed panalty.

[tonyhe]

Ethel you remind me of my old high school headmistress �Strong and forceful� with a;
I�ll take no lip from you young lad attitude. Anyway, I don�t think 2 to 3 minutes late whilst carrying heavy shopping bags to the car on a busy day constitutes �Parking Illegally�. There has got to be a friendlier term for this tiny misdemeanour surely.

Catso I tend to agree with you, I think recently a lot of councils have strictly reviewed the operation of traffic enforcement authorities due to worrying policy & procedures and public complaints. Some of the listed were; -insisting that officers reach given targets resulting in increase in wrongful issue of penalty fines hence aggravating motorist appeals. Many traffic enforcement officers were under so much pressure in a North West city recently resulting in capture by a TV news crew of officers issuing tickets stood next to cars with 3 minutes or more left on the clock hoping the owner just pay the fine. In some cases officers affixed tickets on windscreens as mothers strapped their children in child seats.

This is why Ethel�s first paragraph worries me. A scrupulous officer who doesn�t like the look of my face or needs to reach target, could easily issue a penalty to me whilst I disappear off into the sunset even though I still had time left on my ticket.